For what seems like the first time in the book, Dorian Gray's actions are finally having some consequences. He is finally feeling remorse because of what he did to Basil, but not because he recognizes that it was wrong and he feels sorry for it, but because he cannot make himself to forget what happened.

Dorian also went to visit Adrian Singleton, a young lad who fell under the terrible influence of Dorian Gray, and who now lives in an opium brothel. Adrian has become such a pathetic specimen that even Dorian pities him, and before Dorian leaves, he reminds Adrian that if he needs anything, he needs but write Dorian a letter, and Dorian will assist him with whatever he needs. As Dorian is departing, a poor and reckless decision from his past once again bites him in the ass.

As he is leaving, one of the women whose services are for sale calls after him with the title "Prince Charming." There is a man half passed out at the bar, but as soon as he hears that name, he shoots up, and chases after the man who the prostitute just referred to with that name. As he reaches him, the man grabs Dorian by the neck, and slams him against the wall.

That is when the man reveals that he is James Vane, and as he pulls a gun out of his coat, he explains that for the past eighteen years he has been searching for the man responsible for the suicide of his little sister Sibyl Vane. She was engaged to a man, and she never knew his name, she simply referred to him as "Prince Charming," the identity of whom he thought he would never discover. In a stroke of minor genius that saved his life, Dorian urged James to push him into the light. That is when James realized that the man he was threatening could not have been more than twenty years old, and shamefully apologized and let him go.

Of course, James was unaware of the terrible wish Dorian had made, and so had no way of knowing that he had in fact captured the correct person, and that Dorian had not aged a single day of the eighteen years that had passed.

When James returned to the opium house, the prostitute then revealed that she had met the man whom he had chased after (Dorian) almost 18 years ago, and that he looked exactly as he did then, now. James set out running again, but was unable to track down Dorian on the same night a second time.

When I left off reading, Dorian had been hosting a house party, when he had gone down to his garden to pick some flowers for one of the women who was present at his dinner. The guests came rushing after him when they heard a loud thud, and they found him unconscious on the floor. When he regained consciousness, he reveals to the reader that he fainted out of fear, as he had seen James Vane staring at him through the window.